well behaved women rarely make history

Make gender neutral clothing gender neutral

My first thought was, “cool dresses!” but then read the parent’s comments and I realized how much I fell for their designs. True, they are cool dresses, but if the designers of the brand want to make a difference in children’s clothing and want to help children go over the boundaries of tradition and convention, maybe they should just make a unisex line with non-traditional patterns. Different colors in different shapes, all mixed up so there is no way to put children in gender-box.

It is easier for girls to go over to the “boys” traditional area of expertise and become accepted. It is easy for a girl to play football or to be good in math. What’s usually understood as masculine is always accepted, interesting and good to know. However, what’s usually connected to femininity is underestimated and understood as weak or less interesting. It is great if your daughter is tough but you should watch out if your boy is too girly. These clothes are built on this idea, girls can go over to the boys’ side, but not the other way around.

To sum up, I agree with these parents that suggest a unisex line with a mixture of patterns so that any kid can choose according to their own preferences. Huffintonpost ends the article with “as the Kickstarter perfectly states, girls are awesome and girls decide what it means to be girly.”,.. But are girls the only ones allowed to be girly, and the only ones to be able to decide about it?

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2 thoughts on “Make gender neutral clothing gender neutral”

I agree that this appears to be a step in the right direction, but ultimately we need to break free of the binary. As you suggest, mixing would open up so many possibilities. There is no limit to the remarkable creativity of children. Present them with more options beyond the basic gender conforming clothing, and let them be active participants in the process of their gender expression!